Mathematics — Graph Theory · homology-with-coefficients
Problem
(a) Show that a chain complex of free abelian groups Cn splits as a direct sum of subcomplexes 0→Ln+1→Kn→0 with at most two nonzero terms. [Show the short exact sequence 0→ker∂→Cn→Im∂→0 splits and take Kn=ker∂.]
(b) In case the groups Cn are finitely generated, show there is a further splitting into summands 0→Z→0 and 0→ZmZ→0. [Reduce the matrix of the boundary map Ln+1→Kn to echelon form by elementary row and column operations.]
(c) Deduce that if X is a CW complex with finitely many cells in each dimension, then Hn(X;G) is the direct sum of the following groups:
• a copy of G for each Z summand of Hn(X)
• a copy of G/mG for each Zm summand of Hn(X)
• a copy of the kernel of GmG for each Zm summand of Hn−1(X)